Lofoten Norway Winter Photo Workshop
Here is a recap of my arctic light winter photography workshop to Lofoten Norway to capture the amazing arctic light in a fantastic location to photograph and experience! After spending an extra day in Reykjavik after my Icelandic workshop, I made an early trek to the airport for a 7am flight. From Reykjavik, I flew to Stockholm Sweden and then caught a flight to Tromsø Norway. After a comfortable layover, I met up with Orvar, my partner in Iceland/Norway, and we boarded the flight to Leknes.
The airplane is a propeller plane, a dash 8, which can be an interesting ride. Rough and loud compared to normal airline flights, but we made it safe and sound. Leknes is out on an archipelago and the airport is tiny. One level and baggage claim and ticket counter are basically the same place. Our bags arrived and we went to the one desk to get our rental van. 20 minutes later we loaded the van and headed out for the short drive to our hotel and meet most of the group. It was a much different vibe than in Iceland which is very much geared towards a lot of tourism.
Our first night we booked the Scandic Leknes hotel. It’s a small quaint hotel in the city and was a good place to meet the group. 3 of the 4 people had already made it to the hotel, so we had a quick meet and greet in the hotel restaurant at 9pm before Orvar and I settled in to our rooms. Our last member was scheduled to come in the next morning so we all went to sleep and looked forward to the adventure ahead.
Day 1
The next morning, we gathered as a group for a small breakfast at the hotel. Once finished Orvar and I headed to the airport to pick up our last group member. When we arrived we saw that his flight was cancelled!!!! Long story short, we texted with him and decided that he could take a ferry boat later in the day to a city just south of Leknes and we would come pick him up. With that settled, we headed back to the hotel to get our group and head out shooting since we couldn’t check in to our next hotel yet.
We headed to Hauckland beach to shoot waves, water motion and sandy beaches with a dramatic mountain backdrop. Grey skies prevailed, which was OK because this was winter and our mental model and artistic vision was filled with snow and grey. We shot along the beach for an hour or so and then moved a bit down the road to a rocky outcropping that had some amazing granite boulders and ledges that really made the wave action dramatic. Then, made a quick stop at a lake providing some amazing reflections. I brought along my Fujifilm X-T3 and lenses ranging from 16mm to 200mm which was a balance of traveling light, yet having enough equipment to create the shots I wanted.
After we got our fill, it was late enough for us to check in to our cabins. We stayed at a place called the Lofoten Basecamp, which was a bunch of small cabins on stilts over the water. 
These were based on the traditional Rorbur cabins which were originally built for migrant workers coming to help with the fishing work. We had 3 cabins reserved and each cabin had 3 rooms. We only had 6 total people on this trip, so having some extra space was a bonus.
Orvar and I took one cabin while the other 3 took another cabin. Each cabin was recently remodeled and looked amazing! Or, like right out of an Ikea catalog. A living room with TV, dining nook and full kitchen was perfect for us, plus one bed/bath on the ground floor and then two more bedrooms and a bath up a winding staircase. This would be our base of operation for the next two days/nights while we photographed the Leknes area. With the cabins being somewhat self sufficient, it was up to us to provide meals. We visited the local supermarket and bought a ton of breakfast foods and fruit (plus coffee!!!!) and each morning Orvar and I fixed up a breakfast spread. In the evenings we went out to dinner in one of the local restaurants, though there wasn’t a lot of choice in such a small town.
After getting settled we headed out for sunset. One thing about shooting in this area is often times we are looking for the light on the amazing mountains, not shooting directly at the sun. So we headed to a little fishing village called Ballstad which had a few classic red cabins and a neat little harbor and amazing mountains as backdrop. As this was our first day, folks were “blowing the dust off” of their creativity and getting warmed up. We didn’t really have a good sunset, but still made some good images as a group. What took a bit getting used to is that sunset happened BEFORE 4pm on most days and we had to be at our sunset location no later than 3pm to catch some good light. By 4:30, we were done shooting and heading back to the cabins.
After putting on dry and warm clothes, we assembled for dinner and headed to the Pizza / Kebab restaurant. Weird combination but their pizza was good. After dinner we dropped the gang off at the cabins and Orvar and I headed out to pick up the last member of our group at the ferry terminal in Stamsund, about 15km away. We eventually found the terminal and our person and we quickly headed back to the cabins to get him settled and for us to retire to our cabin. When we first checked in, we talked to the manager of the property and he showed us a sauna that they have, on stilts over the water with a plexiglass front for looking out. Orvar and I committed to having a sauna at least one night on this trip!
Day 2
When we assembled for breakfast in our cabin, one member of our group gingerly walked in to the cabin in obvious pain. He explained that he had hurt his back, doing something mundane, but it triggered a massive spasm and he could barely walk and couldn’t sit down. Though a bit subdued, we all ate and prepared to head out for another day of photography….unfortunately down on person. The day was grey with moderate wind, but it was very shootable.
Our first stop was Skagstranden beach, which is known for water bubbling up in the sand and sometimes some very dramatic patterns in the sand. For some it was difficult to be creative in this location but we all did our best to pull some good images from here. The mountains in the background, though majestic, didn’t have a lot of snow on them, so they were largely black with some yellow grasses. They didn’t really portray a “winter” scene, but still very cool to have massive mountains next to the ocean. \
We then headed to Nusfjord, which is an amazingly quaint tiny fishing village at the mouth of a very small fjord. The drive in to the fjord was so cool, a narrow road in between massive granite peaks jutting up. Apparently this road is quite the fav for the Instagram crowd! Little red cabins and dark waters were the shots in this location and we were all getting the hang of shooting these types of images.
After we had gotten the shots we wanted we headed out of the fjord. We did stop along an ice covered lake that had a cool amphitheater of rock in the background. It looked like it could be a good location, but we would have to work it, which we did for 30 minutes. In the end though after we looked at our images, nobody was really happy with what they got. All good though, we tried and learned from the experience.
After that the wind had picked up some and the temps were dropping. Still hanging right around freezing, the temp never varied all that much because we were close to the ocean. We did stop at one lake that had some of the most beautiful turquoise water with rocks in the foreground and mountains in the background. Here we experimented with long exposures to smooth out the water. We put on 10 stop ND filters to get 1 minute or more exposures. Lots of the folks were happy with the experience and the images that it produced.
Even though it was mid-afternoon, we had to start heading towards our sunset location. We had chosen to go to Uttakliev, which is a beach north of Leknes. When we got there we scrambled down on to the rocks and started shooting wave action and water patterns amongst the granite rocks. The sky remained cloudy so there was no sunset color to speak of. That was largely OK because this was winter and we weren’t expecting sunny skies…plus the grey added to the feeling of cold in our images.
Nobody flooded their boots or got wet so I consider it a successful outing at the beach. We we had our fill and the skies turned dark, we loaded up and headed back to the cabins to change clothes and get ready for dinner. Our injured comrade was still down for the count, so we headed out to a different restaurant, Digg, and had our best dinner yet. We ordered take out for our friend and brought it back for him to eat.
Orvar had made arrangements for us to have a sauna that night so at our appointed time, he and I walked through the freezing weather in shorts to the sauna. Oh my what an amazing experience to sit in dark sauna and look out through the plexiglass window at the sky and the lake! Wow! After about 40 minutes we were both cooked so back to the cabin for shower and looking at our images. That night, I had the best nights sleep I’d had in almost two weeks! Yay for the sauna!
Day 3
The next morning as we gathered for breakfast, our injured friend said he was going to give it a try today. Great news!!!! Followed by some bad news that one of the other guys had fallen down the stairs this morning and thinks he might have broken his toe. Oh no! His pain level was moderate to high, but he still wanted to go, so we went. I admire his fortitude and pain tolerance!
As we loaded up the snow really started coming down. We had about an hours drive to our first location, a church in Grimsoy along the beach that has a beautiful mountain backdrop. Whiteout conditions on the road, but Orvar did a great safe job of getting us here! What was maddening for me was that I knew that there was amazing scenery that we were passing through, yet with the clouds and snow I couldn’t see anything. We arrived at the church and it was really cool, and the conditions were far less than ideal for shooting. Yet we got out and made the best of it in the snow and low visibility.
From there we headed to the small village of Henningsvaer. What a cool little town. I guess I’m enamored with quaint fishing villages! This one has a claim to fame that it has a soccer pitch carved in the rock at the end of the peninsula. In the winter it’s not much to see, but in the summer apparently it’s quite a cool thing if you can see it from a drone. We stopped for some coffee and snacks and then explored the town a bit. We drove down the road to the soccer pitch and lining the road were racks of drying fish. In fact, everywhere we went in Lofoten there were fish drying racks. I thought it might be kind of interesting to hop out and take a look, so we stopped. The minute we opened the doors we were assaulted with the smell of fish. It was almost overpowering at first. We grabbed our cameras and took a few images of the fish, being a bit artsy in the process.
We saw the potential for an image alongside one of the frozen lakes leading out of Henningsvaer. A small red shack on a peninsula with a dramatic background. It was an unplanned stop, however everyone felt compelled to take a crack at capturing the scene.
Our goal for sunset was to be at Unstad, which is a beach north of Leknes. However, because of the slow driving and a couple of stops, it was evident that we weren’t going to make it for sunset. When it was time, we did happen to be at a very pretty fjord and enjoyed some nice color on the mountains and water as the sun slowly set (at 3:50pm). Some of the first, and best, color we’d seen so far so we were all pretty happy on the drive back to the cabins.
After a nice dinner, some of us gathered in our cabin for an image review. Its always one of the most valuable times in a photo workshop as it’s a chance to improve, to hear some feedback, and to see how someone else shot the same location. Typically everyone gets a lot out of these sessions. Since the next day we would be leaving the cabins, we all spent the rest of the evening packing our bags.
Day 4
In the morning we had a quick breakfast and then loaded up for sunrise. We’d have a chance at some color and our plan was to go to Uttakliev to catch reflected light on the mountains. However, when we started to see some color in the sky and the position of the clouds as we were driving, we knew we wouldn’t get what we had hoped for. So, we called an audible and went to Balstad harbor for sunrise. Man oh man we got some great color and very still water for amazing reflections! Everyone was very happy with the results!
We headed back to the cabins and loaded the van for the drive to Reine and our next hotel. On the way, we stopped at a location we had seen earlier, which was a stream/waterfall coming down out of the mountains. Typically this is frozen solid, so to be able to shoot it with moving water was a treat. We all clambered around the area shooting many different compositions.
We then stopped at Skagstranden beach again because of the heated bathrooms and needing a bio break. While there we saw someone out surfing!!!! Crazy Norwegians. We knew it might be a cool shot because there were some snow covered mountains in the background, so we got our long lenses and set our cameras on burst and had fun shooting the surfer.
Continuing on we stopped in the town of Ramberg to have lunch and coffee at the Clik Café. A nice place with good sandwiches and coffee, it was a good break for us. Loading up, the snow started falling again, hard, so our progress was slow but we eventually made it to Reine. After dumping our bags at the Lofoten Bed and Breakfast, we headed out for sunset at the most iconic location in Norway.
The below scene is shot from a one lane bridge connecting two small islands. When we arrived, there were already at least 30 photographers lining the bridge railing.
We wedged our way in to the line up and worked on shooting the scene as the sun slowly dipped past the horizon. Cold wind and snow flurries meant that even though we were bundled up, we all got cold. We headed back to our rooms to change clothes and think about dinner.
We headed to a small bistro on our island since it was close and the mountains looked OK. Cozy and warm, we all ordered either pizza or burgers. One of our group, a very adventurous eater, ordered a pizza topped with whale meat!!! Apparently it was pretty tasty, not rubbery or fishy. After dinner we retired to our rooms. Orvar and I had to share a suite, which meant we had a common room/kitchen and had to share a bathroom. It was nice having company in the evening and it allowed us to plan the agenda for the next day based upon the most recent weather reports.
Day 5
We had planned the sunrise shoot from another iconic location in the area, from a hilltop overlooking the islands and the most dramatic mountains I’ve photographed yet. Unfortunately to get to this location, we had to climb a steep snow covered hill.
Everyone put on their snow cleats, except for one with the injured toe and we started the walk up. Everyone had to work very hard to get to the top of this hill carrying a full camera pack!!! I’m so proud that we all made it! Once on top though, the wind was howling and it was snowing. We huddled behind a stone structure as best we could to wait for sunrise. Someone else who was up there before us gave up on the conditions betting that there wouldn’t be any decent light. We however stuck it out and were rewarded with some amazing images from atop the hill.
David, Orvar, Me
After about an hour we headed slowly down the hill to warm up in the van before our next location. We wanted to head to the furthest point in the archipelago, a town named with a single letter with a symbol over the top. It is spelled “A” and it’s pronounced “oah” or something like that. It was only a 30 minute drive there, however, it started really snowing again and by the time we got there it was basically a white out. We stopped and had some lunch and enjoyed our time at the end of the road. Eventually with nothing do shoot in these conditions, we headed back to Hemnøy island to have another crack at the iconic location on the bridge. This time we didn’t get any dramatic colors, however we got more color than the previous night and most folks were more pleased with their shots from this night. It often pays to visit a location more than once, especially if it’s something folks are not used to shooting.
Once the sun set and the blue hour started, we headed to a location very near our hotel. The shot features a footbridge in the foreground leading to an amazing spire of rock right behind a couple of houses. Thankfully it had just snowed so the footbridge didn’t have any footprints in it!!! We set up to shoot, all clustered around a small area that happened to be on a road that fed a fishing business. Just as we were getting going, several cars came blasting down the road and almost in to us, trying to leave the business as get to the road. I assume they work in the business and are fairly sick and tired of photographers blocking the road.
We all got a chance to shoot the scene and then we moved down the road to the docks and shot across the water to the small town. There was also a White House that was wonderfully lit up and made a nice shot against the dark blue sky. As we were walking back to the van, past the footbridge, the light had darkened even more and the shot looked much better so a couple of us stopped to shoot. However, several people had walked out on to the bridge and disturbed the snow, which sort of ruined the shot in this light. We were fortunate to get our shots even if the light wasn’t ideal.
After a quick dinner at the bistro we all headed to our rooms. We’ve been going pretty hard all week and the travel and cold temps really take your energy, so folks were tired. However, we agreed on an early start in order to shoot blue hour before sunrise.
Day 6
Leaving at 7am, we headed down the road to our pre-sunrise location. It was an overlook and the shot was looking back up the harbor with the town lights reflected in the water and the mountains in the background. Once the blue hour had passed, before sunrise, we headed to our sunrise location near some cabins close to a peak. The sky and weather was not really cooperating, however, we all got some classic Norwegian winter shots, even though we didn’t see the sun.
We headed back to our rooms to pack up and head back North again to Leknes. Along the way we stopped a couple of times to shoot some beach scenes and once when we saw some cool bridges spanning little islands and liked the swoop of the bridges and the road. We stopped in Ramberg again for snack/coffee at the café and continued our journey.
We were staying at the Lofoten Basecamp again and we stopped by to drop off our bags and then head out to Uttakliev for sunset. This time we went seeking out one of the famous features of the area, the “eye of Uttakliev” or “dragons eye”. It’s a round rock in a tide pool in the rock. As the round rock rolls around with the surge of the surf, it eventually widens the hole over time. And, when it’s partially filled with sand, it really does look like an eye. When we arrived we had to wait in line behind a couple of other photogs, but eventually got our chance. The tide was coming in which made it tricky not to get wet, and, have still water in the pool to get off a few shots.
Eventually everyone in the group got their shots and we moved on to other areas in the rocks. We found this really cool “S” curve in the granite slabs and we all enjoyed shooting the receding waves as it highlighted the curve nicely.
It was just about sunset time and one of the guys had had enough of the cold wind and then another flooded his boot, so most of us headed back to the van to warm up. Finally we all made it back and we headed for our rooms.
Storms were moving in this evening so we knew that we wouldn’t be seeing any aurora, which was slightly disappointing. But hey, it’s winter and I don’t expect clear weather in Nordic countries in winter. Looking at the forecast, it was highly doubtful that there would be any sunset in the morning and we all had to fly out, so we planned on just staying in for the morning and preparing to travel.
Day 7
The wind woke me up. I was hoping to sleep in but the howling wind woke me up early. I was thankful we didn’t have any plans to go out because the conditions were un-shootable. After a leisurely morning in our cabin, we all met up and packed the van to head to the airport to drop one of our group who had an early flight. After the drop off we headed in to the city center of Leknes to try and find some breakfast. Being Sunday, there was nothing open! It’s a small town anyways and the limited number of choices were either closed until Monday or opening later in the day. We did find one coffee shop and were the second people in the door when it opened, which was fortunate since all of the tourists/photogs in town seeking food ended up there.
After homemade pastries and great coffee, we headed to the airport. Once inside we saw the guy we had dropped off a couple hours ago!!! His flight was cancelled because the incoming airplane had to turn back. He was being put on a bus for a 4 hour ride to another airport to catch a flight to Oslo. So, we all waited with anxious energy for our airplane to come in so hopefully we could avoid a 4 hour bus ride. Eventually our plane landed and we boarded the tiny airplane. We flew to Bodo first and switched airplanes then boarded our flight to Oslo. When traveling to these remote areas its best to have a large dose of patience and flexibility because there is no guarantee that your flight or itinerary will actually happen as planned.
Here we had to say goodbye to Orvar as he was flying home to Reykjavik. We collected our bags and walked across the way to the Radisson airport hotel. How nice it was to have a full sized bed, a desk and a full sized shower!!! Ive been living with twin beds and RV sized showers for 2 weeks and I didn’t realize how much I had missed the small things.
4 of us met for dinner in the restaurant and eventually said our goodbyes because our flights the next day were leaving at different times.
By the time I got to my room I was exhausted. Spending over a week in Iceland with one workshop then the travel and week in Norway, I was cooked. A sound nights sleep and then a full travel day from Oslo, to Reykjavik, then Seattle and then finally to Portland. Home safe and sound in my own bed, with my beloved family, I was happy.
Conclusion
Norway is an absolutely incredible place to photograph. Especially the Lofoten area. Huge granite peaks go right in to the darkest green seas you’ve seen. Classic Norwegian fishing cabins, fjords, and the chance for an aurora over this scenery. It has to be on every photographers bucket list!!!!
It’s not an easy place to get to, but the journey is worth the effort. The food is good, the people are so very friendly, getting around the archipelago is fairly easy and distances aren’t too long in this area. Norway is huge and has many other great photo locations, but they are far apart. The greatest density of amazing locations is in Lofoten.
About Me:
I am a full time photographer, workshop leader and creative educator based in the Pacific Northwest. I conduct group and private workshops all around the world as well as remote teaching across the web. If you would like more information, please visit johnpedersenphoto.com
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